Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Productivity in Context makes a point about working together and does it via an interview.
When I got to meet Ryan face-to-face at SOBCon in Chicago this past May, I asked him about those discussions and how they led to a new product being offered by the company that he worked for.

Diva Marketing Blog makes a point about what happens when we know people.
I wondered if it would have made a difference to any of them if they knew the clerk behind the counter. I wondered if they would have bought more stamps, shipped more packages or been more patient if they had read a Postal employee’s blog.

Chris Webb makes a point that applies to more than book reviews.
We always hope for positive reviews of our books, but there is a rare and magical event that only occurs every once in a while. It is the ability of a single review or recommendation to propel a book to bestseller status.

the brandbox makes a point about when more is too much — unless you’re good with cream cheese.
Here’s why I’m adamant that a focused brand beats an “everything” brand any day (unless you’re a bagel).

Viral Garden makes a point about learning the culture in a new country.
But I saw an interesting example yesterday of how companies need to know the unwritten ‘rules’ of interacting with people via these sites/tools.

The Broad Brush makes a point about what prepares us to be successful.
You can’t go home until the paint is dry – folks want to come on the soc net scene and splash around and think they’ve done it.

Related ala carte selections include

Director Tom points out the big question.

Thanks to everyone who’s bought and blogged about the eBook!

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Pick the Brain is celebrating our ability to make our own success.
The brain has great difficulty in distinguishing between what’s true and what’s imagined.

Just Creative Design is celebrating the wonders of paper.
Paper has a feel, a smell, a look and a vibe that cannot be reproduced, no matter how many pixels you cram into a display. It has attributes that cannot be bestowed upon any other medium. It is something that enriches our lives and minds in ways most of us don’t even realise or notice. Paper is beautiful.

Debbie Millman is celebrating the joy of logos!
Click on the image, and then click on “all sizes” to see it in its full regalia.

The Marketing Fresh Peel is celebrating simplicity.
SIMPLE IDEA.

Zoomstart is celebrating the differences of the sexes.
Most products and services have a very specific demographic that’s either male or female. And your marketing has to appeal to the gender you’re selling to.

chrisjdavis isn’t celebrating a reunion with Alf.
But wait, there is salvation on the internets I am told, some wonderful person with stylish hair and perfect teeth I am sure, has released a stand alone app that interfaces with Hulu. Its a new day, everyone lives and they get a pony in every pot and a chicken to ride all their very own!

Conversation Agent is celebrating online as reputation managment experience.
Why online? Everyone is online. Online is easy to spot, track and measure. It boggles my mind why more companies are not listening and acting.

Related ala carte selections include

Middle Zone Musings is lighting some fireworks of his own doings.
OK, folks; this may come as a shock to you (bolt of lightning, crash of thunder), but there have been some exciting recent developments I just had to share with ya…

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

The Art of Non-Conformity draws up plans for World Domination. Download it. Read the comments. They’ll tell you why.
Greetings from Seattle, Washington. I present to you your own copy of my promised manifesto, modestly entitled A Brief Guide to World Domination.

Win Extra draws the line at pimping ads to your friends.
Not only are your friends now pimping products to you they can also gain points every time you click on an ad they have suggested through this FriendRank system.

Middle Zone Musings draws a picture of humility found in a handshake.
Have you ever experienced a shining moment of glory, only to find out it, er, wasn’t what you thought? Yep; thought so.

Jonathan Fields draws an analogy about being where we are.
When we tweet everything we are experiencing in a conversation, concert or gathering of like-minded people, does the very activity of tweeting somehow take away from our ability to enjoy the bigger activity?

Related ala carte selections include

pingable draws up a list of spectacular free themes.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

I’ll Do It Myself Blog lays out some staggering marketing missed opportunities.
This under tapped market has $175 billion in discretionary spending power. That figure is more than twice the spending power of American teenagers and almost 18 times the spending power of the American “tweens” market.

Remarkablogger lays out the real strengths of the blogging platform.
The blog format is extraordinarily flexible. It can adapt itself into all kinds of uses. This flexibility is applicable to business blogs in a variety of ways–especially if your audience isn’t even sure what a blog is.

Social Media Explorer lays out a problem with the vocabulary of social networking.
This Google Blog Search result of a Friend Feed post of mine, which incidentally had nothing to do with Robert, but was a question I posed on the Social Media Club’s Friend Feed room, seems to indicate, however, that I am Robert’s friend.

Confident Writing lays out another set of questions in a great series.
You need to pay as much (if not more) attention to the framework for your question as you do the question itself.

Here are 7 things to think about before you add your questions to the bottom of the page . . .

Christine Kane lays out some learning from a unexpected source.
Let’s hearken back to the early days of email.

You dial up. You listen to the squeaky scratchy noises. You wait for the AOL man to say “Welcome!” You wait to see if he’s finished his greeting, or if he’s simply pausing before telling you the exciting news: “You’ve got mail!”

Related ala carte selections include

It’s NOT about Your Stuff has great news!

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

DOSH DOSH follows the way the AP reconstructed the news delivery model. It’s a useful content model. Worth some thinking.

While you might not own a large online newspaper, the points listed in this article can be applied to your blog or online magazine. Apart from having strong information sources, it’s important to organize content in a way which provokes greater audience involvement.

Kent Blumberg has some advice for working with millenials. He got it from by asking them.
Competition will be stiff for the really good ones. If you want to attract and retain the best, you will want to know more about what floats a 24 year old’s boat.

BIGG Success asks something we sometimes never realize. Read the post and listen to the podcast.
George said he’s been fishing at times when he would have been happy to catch any fish at all. He’s even had times when his friend a few feet away was catching all kinds of fish.

So he found out what his friend was using – what bait or lure – and changed his, but he still didn’t catch any fish. He concluded he was fishing in the wrong hole.

The Art of Non-Conformity has news!
You may not have realized how rich you are, so I thought I’d show you how it breaks down in real, measurable terms. And don’t worry—there are no guilt trips or anything messy like that. It’s all good news, at least for you.

Pajama Professional asks “are you done dreaming?”
If you have been online for more than a week then you most likely already know everything you need to know to start making money online. Understanding what you need to do isn’t the hard part. The hard part is looking past all the crap that will stand in the way of you and your paycheck.

Moments of Clarity asks a huge question in a short post. Should we be responding by learning new skills?
Instead of driving or flying around to pitch prospects…can we create video presentations instead that will blow them away? I think so.

Related ala carte selections include

TODDAND calls attention to the “Doodle 4 Google” competition.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Read, Write, Web shows quirky isn’t a copycat.
If there is one thing to love about the site even before you try it is that the service’s name, which at first glance sounds stupidly web 2.0, makes perfect sense once you know what it stands for (one of the very few web 2.0 names that do). In fact, when I first heard the name I was ready to hate it, but after reading their explanation I couldn’t help but love it.

Drew’s Marketing Minute shows the recipe for delight!
When was the last time you raved about a business? Was it because their product was so notably superior? Or was it because something they did WOWed you?

Seth’s Blog shows the beauty of starting with a classified.
So, try this instead: Write a classified ad. What’s the offer? What do you want me to do? You’re paying by the word!

360degree Blog shows the power of a teddy bear who cares.
Yesterday, I posted a bit of a rant about the wasteful and annoying practice of blog comment spam on my personal blog. In the post, I mentioned that spam has expanded beyond online pharma and adult entertainment to…teddy bears?

The Communicatrix shows why simple isn’t, well simply a snap.
But the quickest route to heartache is confusing simple with easy. Because in the context of goals, they couldn’t be more different.

Remarkable Communication shows the conversational nuances.

While I definitely fall into the category Bob calls “online zealot,” I also think it makes sense to look at this stuff with your critical faculties fully engaged. One thing I’ve noticed is that the follow-up conversations I’ve seen talk about “social media marketing” or “conversation marketing” like it was one thing. In fact, there are a lot of different flavors.

Related ala carte selections include

dmiracle.com shows the overwhelming nature of to-do lists.
What happens when the to-do lists you make begin getting in the way of actually getting things done?

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss